The aged veteran said to the master, "See how many programs I have written in my labors. All of these works I have created needed no more than a text editor and a compiler." The master said, "I do have an editor; indeed, I have also a compiler." Said the aged one, "Yet you shackle them within an 'environment'. Why must your environment be integrated? My environment has never been integrated, yet I am a mighty programmer.

The key operative precept of post-modernism is that all reality is a social construct. Since no institution or normative behavior stems from natural cause, and there is no objective, external reality, then all institutions and attitudes are just social constructs. They exist only through the agreement of the participants. Nothing can be sacred, since sanctification comes from outside, by definition. If nothing is sacred, and institutions have no more reality than a children's amorphous game of ball, they deduce that any construct can be reconstructed through willful choice.

I've been building a new office in my downstairs space for quite a while now. It's a "weekends" project for someone who doesn't have very many weekends. In early December, I broke down and hired a contractor to install the laminate ("cardboard") flooring, which was the penultimate step in the master plan. Last comes furniture, then moving in. (Which starts the chain of dominoes, as my eldest gets the bedroom which used to be my office, then my youngest takes her spot, which makes room for the new baby.

Reason and Passion need not conflict. Reason without passion is dusty, dry, and dead. Reason without passion leads to moral relativity. If nothing moves the thinker to passion, then all subjects are equal and without distinction. As well to discuss the economic benefits of the euthanasia of infants as the artistic merits of urinals. Passion without reason brings the indiscriminate energy of a summer's thunderstorm. Too much energy unbound, without direction, it's fury as constant as the winds of the air.

My personal favorite is TWiki. It has some nice features like file attachments, a great search interface, high configurability, and a rich set of available plugins (including an XP tracker plugin.) One cool thing about TWiki: configuration settings are accomplished through text on particular topics. For example, each "web" (set of interrelated topics) has a topic called "WebPreferences". The text on the WebPreferences topics actually controls the variables. Likewise, if you want to set personal preferences, you set them as variables--in text--on your personal topic.

Wikis have been thoroughly mainstreamed now. You know how I can tell? Spammers are targeting them. Any wiki without access control is going to get steamrolled by a bunch of Russian computers that are editing wiki pages. They replace all the legitimate content with links to porn sites, warez, viagra, get rich now, and the usual panoply of digital plaque. The purpose does not appear to be driving traffic directly to those sites from the wikis.

The latest in my not-exactly-daily news and commentary... As of December 10th, I will be leaving Totality Corporation. It has been a challenge and an education. It has also been an interesting time, as we uncovered the hidden linkages from daily activities to ultimate profitability. The managed service provider space is still new enough that the business models are not all so well-defined and understood as in consulting. I earnestly hope that I am leaving Totality in a much better place than it was when I joined.

The more I deal with infrastructure architecture, the more I think that somewhere along the way, we have overspecialized. There are too many architects that have never lived with a system in production, or spent time on an operations team. Likewise, there are a lot of operations people that insulate themselves from the specification and development of systems for which they will ultimately take responsibility. The net result is suboptimization in the hardware/software fit.

We pay a lot of attention to stakeholders when we create systems. The end users get a say, as do the Gold Owners. Analysts put their imprimatur on the requirements. In better cases, operations and administration adds their own spin. It seems like the only group that doesn't have any input during requirements gathering is the development team itself. That is truly unfortunate. Not even the users will have to live with the system more than the developers will.

Note: This piece originally appeared in the "Marbles Monthly" newsletter in April 2003 I caught an incredibly entertaining special on The Learning Channel last week. A bunch of academics decided that they were going to build an authentic Roman-style catapult, based on some ancient descriptions. They had great plans, engineering expertise, and some really dedicated and creative builders. The plan was to hurl a 57 pound stone 400 yards, with a machine that weighed 30 tons.